Canada

March 14, 2009

When the young Indian Canadian beauty queen Ruby Dhalla
acted in a Hindi movie called “Kyon Kis Liye” (Why, what for?) in 2003 she may
not have planned to run for the country’s parliament. Six years hence the
35-year-old is now a Member of Parliament and is scrambling to prevent the
distribution of the film’s DVD as it contains some steamy stuff.

She says the film’s producers have “put my face on someone
else's body, in clothes I never wore.” Dhalla, incidentally, was named third on
the list of sexiest women politicians in the world by Maxim magazine.

In a statement Dhalla, who is a doctor, says, "The
producers have super-imposed and doctored images of myself for their personal
opportunistic gain. Despite notices from lawyers to immediately cease and
desist, the producers continue to use my name, image and involvement without my
consent.

"I have worked extremely hard to get to where I am and
will not be exploited by individuals. I have taken and will continue to take all
necessary legal action to stop this opportunism, defamation, slander and
exploitation by the producers.''

The film’s producer and her co-star Charanjit Sihra has
claimed he has her written consent and he has not changed anything. "That
is her. That is her body. That is her face,'' he has been quoted as saying by
the Hamilton Spectator newspaper.

In the interest of fairness, I am refraining from commenting
on this one.